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Ashes Found At Vacant Fort Worth Mortuary

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – There are new developments Wednesday morning at the vacant Fort Worth mortuary where, investigators said, someone intentionally left corpses inside. The property manager is speaking out for the first time after he made that gruesome discovery last month.

And it turns out that there is even more heartbreak at the Johnson Family Mortuary.

Early last month, the building’s owners found eight unattended corpses at the mortuary. Two of those corpses were babies. The property manager said that he had stopped by the building after an eviction notice was issued. Even before he opened the doors to the funeral home, he immediately noticed a strong smell.

“We knew at that point that this is not going to be a good situation. Obviously, the stench was overwhelming,” said the property manager, who only identified himself as Rick. “When I was driving home, I broke down in the car. I was so angry, so mad that anybody would treat human beings like this — dead or alive. It’s just ridiculous to me. I can’t imagine.”

A cleaning crew was at the building on Tuesday. They discovered a box of ashes on a shelf toward the back of the building, and even more ashes in a garbage can while they were dumping trash. The Fort Worth Police Department was called about this new discovery and investigators are coming to pick up those ashes.

Meanwhile, the owners of the mortuary — Rachel and Dondre Johnson — have been charged with abuse of a corpse and had their funeral director’s license revoked. The crime is a misdemeanor.

The property manager believes that laws should be changed so that more serious charges can be filed in these types of cases.